From one persepctive it does not matter whether it is gold or silver. And in fact there is nothing stopping anyone from using either/or as money.

Bi-metallism in one system, where you have both Silver and Gold, is ultimately confusing and clumsy. Setting fixed exchange values between the 2 always results in confusion and manipulation.

I tend to favour gold simply because it has more power in the minds of humanity than silver. In theory we can back a "commodity" money (such as gold) with any commodity - this has been done often with wheat, tobacco etc acting as the chosen medium of exchange. Gold has tended to prove itself the best "commodity" money historically.

It's possible to envision a host of money systems backed with all sorts of stuff, and in a free market environment the best form would win. I tend to think that gold has done just that, ie win, more than any other commodity.

But I wouldn't poo poo a Silver standard, even though its industrial uses appear to be where its greater value to humanity lies.

And just to add to that, please find below an up to the minute (Dec 20th 2004) article from GATA (Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee) regarding the potential re-monetizing of silver in Mexico.

-START-

11:42a ET Monday, December 20, 2004

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

GATA today distributed internationally by the
Business Wire service a press release about
efforts to remonetize silver in Mexico. The
release is appended. Please help us circulate it
around the Internet and to news organizations.

DALLAS -- Mexico is close to remonetizing the
country's greatest natural resource, silver, the Gold
Anti-Trust Action Committee said today.

GATA distributed an essay from its correspondent
in Mexico City, Hugo Salinas Price, reporting that
legislation is pending before the Ways and Means
Committee of Mexico's House of Representatives
that would put an undenominated one-ounce
"Libertad" silver coin in general circulation along
with Mexico's current paper money.

While it is vehemently opposed by Mexico's central
bank, the Bank of Mexico, the legislation has the
support of 30 of Mexico's 31 state governors and
176 Mexican journalists and was almost unanimously
favored in a poll taken by TV Azteca, GATA said.

GATA said the silver coin legislation would give
Mexicans a choice of money by which they might
protect themselves against the devaluation of fiat
currencies; would stimulate employment in the
country's mining industry, the world's largest
producer of silver; and would help break the
suppression of the price of both silver and gold on
the U.S. commodities exchanges, which are
dominated by derivatives players more or less
backed by the U.S. government.

Salinas Price's essay can be found at the Internet
site for GATA dispatches here:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gata/message/2681

Salinas Price's own proposal for remonetizing
silver in Mexico can be found at his Internet site
here:

http://www.plata.com.mx/plata/plata/english.htm

-END-

__________________nemo

\"You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.\" - Buckminster Fuller.